Louisville Hoops Will Host Pro Day For NBA Scouts

Pro Days have traditionally been a huge part of the NFL Draft process as college football players return back to school to work out in front of hundreds of NFL scouts in hopes of being drafted.

Now it seems as though the newest fad in college basketball is the “pro day” hosted by a University before the season starts in hopes of luring NBA scouts to come and watch the team practice and individual players participate in drills.

Three years ago Kentucky Head Coach John Calipari was the first to start this, and ended up having over 50 NBA scouts on hand to watch the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns, the Harrison Twins, & Willie Cauley-Stein, all of which would eventually head off to play in the NBA.

In 2015 and 2016 several other big time basketball programs followed in the same footsteps including Duke, UNLV, & LSU only to have players such as Ben Simmons, Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard, Jamaal Murray, Tyler Ulis, Bam Adebayo, De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Patrick McCaw and Stephen Zimmerman all selected in either the 2016 or 2017 NBA Draft.

With a young and talented roster at Louisville full of NBA potential, Coach Rick Pitino will look to create the same success that other programs have experienced from hosting these events.

According to Jeff Greer of the Courier Journal, Head Coach Rick Pitino and the Louisville basketball team will host their first Pro Day this fall in front of scouts from all 30 NBA teams.

With guys like V.J. King, Deng Adel, Ray Spaulding and Anas Mahmoud already being looked at as future NBA players, and having two five star freshmen in Malik Williams & Brian Bowen, having a pro day is a great way for these players to get serious looks from NBA scouts and will only help in their long-term development.

Pitino told the Courier Journal, “Because this team is so young, I want to see how they perform in a very intense practice in front of pro scouts. We’re going to probably have the number one schedule in the nation again, and that is a lot of pressure that a young team will go through. We’re young in certain areas and very experienced in others, so I think it’s going to be good for these guys to play in front of pro scouts in one day.”

A date has not yet been set but will take place sometime in the coming weeks.

Jacob Lane joined The Cardinal Connect in August of 2017 after previously writing for CardinalSports.com on the Rivals Network. Jacob covers anything and everything Louisville Cardinals. Follow him on Twitter @Jacob_Lane08